Commentary:
Immigration has become a very contentious topic, particularly during this vote year. One member even went so far as to claim that immigrants are “poisoning the heart of our nation.” I hold the same viewpoint, and I value what immigrants have accomplished to make our nation great. I have witnessed since I was a child how much refugees have helped our nation’s economy, with some arriving in the U.S. with just the shirts on their backs.
When I was in school, I went to Tierra Amarilla in northern New Mexico to buck grass at one of my sister’s farms. Following a vehicle with a flat truck and hoisting straw bales with your hands and knees to a house side stacking the pallets on the truck are what it takes to bend hay. Your muscles fatigue after a while, and your nose and mouth are hay-filled. I ran into two Mexican house hands, one of whom had been trained as an expert and the other a teacher, while conducting this work. They were here to improve the lives of their people and did not mind doing back-breaking job. Similar to what happened with a college-educated Mexican employee who assisted my father and I in logging up in the northern New Mexico trees.
I’ve worked for a company that two Juarez brothers founded when they immigrated to Los Angeles and built a publishing business there. They worked day and night to start their own manufacturing plant in California, which they then followed with flowers in Juarez, Mexico, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The majority-owned printing company, which now has clients from Hallmark and the National Guard, is the largest minority-owned lithography company in the country.
Just weeks before the first battle atomic bomb detonated his hometown of Hiroshima, Japan, a young boy was evacuated to the landscape. He later immigrated to the United States, where he worked for the federal security passions of his adopted nation as an experienced expert at Sandia National Laboratories.
My other Belizean buddy and his wife and two young kids recently arrived in the United States. He founded a sheet company with his family, working without a safety net. He then supplies sheet materials and paper containers for businesses like McDonald’s, taking full advantage of the American vision. This business currently employs thousands of American employees.
My favorite taco house is run and owned by a guy who immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. He was a vet in Mexico. He told me that he misses working with animals, but his taco business is thriving, and he is glad to be an American innovator, and to be contributing to the U. S. business.
Another friend of mine came to the U. S. years before. He became a television network and writer for the newsroom. He made the decision to start his own business and founded a Spanish-language paper. Today, he and his wife edit the newspaper’s content, supervise columnists, create editorials, sell ads to customers, and actually deliver the bi- regular paper to a large geographical audience of Hispanic- speakers.
Two Mexican workers who were born into the United States as children are also employees of my company. One who resides in Juarez bears the cost of crossing the border to operate in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, every time. It is a royal anguish to wait in line at the ports of entry for those who are not from the border place, not knowing if there are delays or excessive traffic. Crossing days may range from a few seconds to several hours. My staff has to get up extra early and travel westbound to make sure she is at work on time in order to counteract these unknowns. She constantly arrives at the office before me, and I live absolutely two minutes away from our business.
This company’s parents came to the U. S. as younger adults. They have worked at car dealerships doing tedious tasks like housesweeping and washing vehicles. They also wake up early in the morning and continue to work until the moon sets. They also make their living. The youngest of the four children, one of whom has a passion for animal science, has her own food-service firm, two of whom are college grads and work in the business world.
During my job, I have employed citizens from Mexico, Brazil, and Poland. Every single one of the newcomers, all of whom later attained U. S. membership or citizenship, was a painful employee, fair, and a valuable part of my staff. They all appeared to be demonstrating that they could work as hard as any American and make a living.
All of these are my own experience with immigrants. Studies have shown that workers, upon arriving in the U. S., immediately find work and get contributors to the U. S. business. Unless you are a Native American, we are all workers previously. It’s about time to prevent disparaging these individuals and honor the contributions they make to our nation.
The Border Industrial Association is led by President Jerry Pacheco. The ideas expressed by Jerry Pacheco are his own, and they do not always reflect those of NMSU or KRWG Public Media.
